Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, eeff, Magnifico, annetteboardman, Besame, jck, and JeremyBloom. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) Interceptor 7, Man Oh Man, wader, Neon Vincent, palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse (RIP), ek hornbeck (RIP), rfall, ScottyUrb, Doctor RJ, BentLiberal, Oke (RIP) and jlms qkw.
OND is a regular community feature on Daily Kos, consisting of news stories from around the world, sometimes coupled with a daily theme, original research or commentary. Editors of OND impart their own presentation styles and content choices, typically publishing each day near 12:00 AM Eastern Time
Greetings from Disney World! Marlowe, Dale and I are taking a much-needed break at Chez Souris (House of the Mouse) during the only time we could afford it... the dead of August.
On the bright side, temps are ONLY in the 90s, lines are (relatively) short, and we're avoiding the worst of the heat by spending our afternoons immersed in the (relative) cool of the hotel pool.
So I'm gonna post tonight's digest a little on the early side. (And apologize in advance for any typos, formatting issues, or ... wait, is that rum?)
I mean, there was a debate, and some mugshots, and a Putin window-drop (from the 3500th floor), but those are all happily covered in other diaries.
So.
...The governor’s oversight board of hand-picked stooges on Monday filed a complaint to Florida’s state inspector general accusing the company of paying “unethical benefits and perks” to the district’s workers and their families.
The board said “the scheme raises significant questions regarding self-dealing” by its predecessor board, since those five members were supposedly in line, along with about 400 other district employees and their families, to receive discounts on park tickets, hotel stays and merchandise.
...The board asserts that the discounts on hotels, merchandise, food and beverages granted the district’s employees and their families “cost taxpayers over $2.5 million” last year alone. The board put forth this figure as though it’s a burden on the good taxpaying souls of Orange and Osceola counties, where the district sits.
Actually, it’s nothing of the kind. Who pays taxes to the district? Disney, that’s who. In other words, Disney has been charging itself for the cost of keeping the district’s workers just a little bit happier.
The chairperson of Florida’s ethics commission violated the commission’s own rules by taking a job as the administrator of a Gov. Ron DeSantis-controlled special district, according to an opinion from the commission’s attorney
...After reviewing Gilzean’s contract with the Central Florida district, the commission’s general counsel, Steven Zuilkowski, said Gilzean’s role as district administrator appears to be public employment and that “maintaining public employment is inconsistent” with the laws.
...In Gilzean’s email to Zuilkowski requesting a legal opinion, he said he remained on the ethics commission after taking the district job based on their conversations from months prior.
But Zuilkowski said in his opinion that, during that April conference call between the two and the commission’s executive director, the director told Gilzean about the public employment requirement, but that Gilzean said he had received legal advice elsewhere about holding both jobs.
“You stated you would contact me if you wanted my legal opinion,” Zuilkowski wrote.
Gilzean was appointed to the commission in 2019 by DeSantis, and was reappointed in 2020 and again in 2022. He has been a frequent appointee of Florida governors. DeSantis also appointed Gilzean to the Re-Open Florida Task Force and the Florida Census Complete Count Committee. Former Gov. Rick Scott appointed Gilzean to the Florida A&M board, the 9th Circuit Judicial Nominating Commission and the Pinellas County School Board.
In a shot across the bow of the giant media companies that it’s negotiating with to end its 108-day-old strike, the WGA West released a report today that calls for more government regulation of what it calls the “anti-competitive practices” of Disney, Amazon and Netflix, which it accuses of “abusing their dominance to further disadvantage competitors, raise prices for consumers, and push down wages for the creative workforce.”
The executive summary of the report, called “The New Gatekeepers: How Disney, Amazon, and Netflix Will Take Over Media,” contends that “Without intervention, these conglomerates will seize control of the media landscape and the streaming era’s advances for creativity and choice will be lost. These new gatekeepers have amassed market power through mergers and other anti-competitive practices, offering an alarming window into the future of media.”
...“Writers being forced to strike in this climate should come as a surprise to no one,” said WGA West Research & Public Policy Director Laura Blum-Smith. “We’re transitioning from a period of rapid investment and competition that brought about new and diverse content to a monopolistic model that will concentrate control over entertainment programming in the hands of just a few large and powerful corporations. For writers, that means fewer buyers for their work, employers who exert more leverage in individual deal negotiations, and depressed pay and working conditions.”
...When first announced, the casting of West Side Story star Rachel Zegler as the titular Snow White sparked racist backlash from commentators who believed that Zegler (who is of Colombian and Polish descent) wasn’t pale enough for the part, as the princess is described as having skin “as white as snow.”
Zegler acknowledged the backlash in an interview with Variety, stating that she was “trending on Twitter for days, because all of the people were angry.” Zegler went on to emphasize that “Snow White is really a big deal in Spanish-speaking countries” and expressed pride at playing “a Latina princess.”
...Note that the upcoming remake is titled Snow White, not Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The upcoming remake features only one actor with dwarfism, with their six companions played by non-dwarf actors.
The absence of dwarfs has sparked backlash online, but the idea of seven dwarfs appearing in the remake also proved controversial.
Appearing on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast, Game of Thrones star Peter Dinklage dismissed Disney’s remake as a “backwards story,” stating that he “was a little taken aback when [Disney] were very proud to cast a Latina actress as Snow White, but you are still telling the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.”
In other news...
New data shows that efficient, grid-responsive buildings would make a zero-carbon grid $100B cheaper per year — if utilities and policymakers can act in time
It’s not hard to understand why energy-efficiency investments will make it easier to decarbonize homes, offices, stores and other buildings. What’s less obvious — but no less important — is the role more efficient and grid-responsive buildings can play in helping to ease the transition to a carbon-free grid.
A report released this week sheds more light on the crucial relationship between upfront investments to make buildings more energy-efficient and a drastically lower cost of switching to 100 percent clean electricity. The new report also includes some nitty-gritty data to help utilities and regulators integrate these findings into their real-world planning.
The studio behind John Wick and The Hunger Games has reinstated the use of masks after several employees tested positive for Covid-19
The Hollywood film studio Lionsgate has reinstated its mask mandate as cases of Covid-19 continue to rise.
In a company-wide email obtained by Deadline, it was announced that nearly half of the company’s employees would need to wear “medical grade” face masks again in the flagship offices in Los Angeles. The rule applies “except when alone in an office with the door closed, actively eating, actively drinking at their desk or workstation, or if they are the only individual present in a large open workspace”.
Despite extensive coverage of Hurricane Hilary, major TV networks largely bypassed its link to global warming
During coverage of Hurricane Hilary's unprecedented landfall in California — where it struck as a tropical storm after swiftly intensifying to a Category 4 hurricane due to abnormally warm waters, broke rainfall records in Southern California and four other states, and marked the first tropical storm to hit Southern California in 84 years — major TV news networks largely ignored the clear signals of climate change driving Hilary’s unique path and rapid intensification.
From August 18-21, a Media Matters analysis found:
- National TV news broadcasters — ABC, CBS, and NBC — and major cable news networks — CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News — covered Hurricane Hilary for 18 hours and 38 minutes across 430 segments.
- Only 4% of the 430 segments and weathercasts about Hurricane Hilary across national TV news mentioned the role climate change played in the storm.
The conservative group's big announcement that its climate denial videos were approved in Texas public schools appears to be a lie, the Texas State Board of Education tells HEATED
For the last week, Arielle and I have been trying to report more deeply on the fossil-fueled effort to teach climate denial in public schools.
Specifically, we’ve been looking into the Prager University Foundation, the self-proclaimed “world’s leading conservative nonprofit,” which recently got its “educational” materials on climate change approved for use in Florida public schools
PragerU’s materials, which have been widely reported on by mainstream media, falsely claim that heat records around the world are “natural;” that wind and solar power pollute the Earth and make life miserable; and compare climate activists to Nazis.
Sonoma County, CA health officials say they’ve seen an uptick in positive COVID-19 tests during outpatient visits
A spike in local COVID-19 infections has led Kaiser Permanente, the county’s largest primary care provider, to begin requiring staff, patients and visitors to wear masks at its Santa Rosa facilities.
Kaiser said in a statement late Tuesday that in the past three weeks there has been an overall increase in the number of patients testing positive for COVID-19.
“To ensure that we are helping protect the health and safety of our patients, our workforce and our community, we have reintroduced a mask mandate for physicians, staff, patients, members, and visitors in the hospital and medical offices in the Santa Rosa Service Area,” the company statement said.
What's beneath YOUR feet tonight? Tell us in the comments!